Limerick team's spend falls below €2m mark for first time in three years
LOWER SPEND: Players from both teams march behind the band before the Munster GAA Hurling Championship Final match at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
Limerick’s failure to reach a fifth consecutive All-Ireland hurling final saw team spend fall below the €2m mark for the first time in three years.
With no All-Ireland final costs incurred this year, Limerick’s team expenses figure of €1,987,431 represented a 16% decrease on last year’s €2.37m total.
2021 was the last time Limerick’s team spend came in under the €2m mark, but given the €1.3m figure of three years ago was significantly influenced by the pandemic-shortened season, as was the case in 2020 also, the 2024 total is the county's lowest year-round team spend since €1.48m was ploughed into the various Limerick hurling and football teams in 2019.
This year’s reduction in team costs contributed to a €185k reduction in overall expenditure, which had the further knock-on effect of seeing Limerick's 2024 surplus grow to €592,371. This 19% surplus growth was in spite of gate receipts falling by €440k to €646,065.
Facility hire of €103,314, listed under team administration costs, was triple the previous year’s figure. The increase has been linked to the closure of TUS Gaelic Grounds and Mick Neville Park in Rathkeale for different periods of the year, which left the county board having to hire out different pitches for county teams to train on.
The closure of the Gaelic Grounds for the earlier part of 2024, said county board secretary Mike O’Riordan in his annual report, was due to the damage done by the Castlehaven-Dingle Munster Club SFC final played in “monsoon conditions” last December.
“The Gaelic Grounds had a quieter season this year. The National Hurling League fixtures were scheduled elsewhere due to the pitch surface getting damaged after the Munster Club Football Final in December played in horrific conditions.” O’Riordan said the “most worrying prospect” in Limerick GAA currently is the lack of referees. He revealed that the county board is relying on referees from other counties to facilitate both league and championship club fixtures.
Addressing the lack of local streaming in 2024, O’Riordan wrote that “earlier in the year there were expressions of interest from various parties, and we subsequently decided not to stream [club games] for a multitude of reasons. Over the past few seasons, when we did stream, the return has not justified the outlay”.
